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Dr David Page, an ardent Sri Lanka media watcher, passes away
View(s):Dr. David Page, senior fellow of the Institute for Commonwealth Studies (ICwS), former editor and manager in the BBC South Asian Services, and a driving force of the Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA), died in London on Thursday 10th October 2024, aged 80.
Dr David Page
He joined the BBC in 1972 as Programme Organiser of the BBC Urdu Service after graduating from Merton College Oxford and spent a year teaching at Edwardes College Peshawar prior to completing a D Phil thesis at Oxford on politics in pre-1947 Punjab, subsequently published as ‘PreludetoPartition’ (1982).
He left the BBC after a reorganisation of the South Asian services in 1994 and continued researching and advocating with particular interest on South Asia. Co-editing ‘Embattled Media: Democracy, Governance and Reform in SriLanka’ (Sage 2015) with Dr. William Crawley and Sri Lankan lawyer and columnist Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, the book had an editorial focus on free speech jurisprudence, jurisdictional and political constraints to media freedom and teaching media. Spanning research over several years, it featured contributions by leading Sri Lankan editors, academics, lawyers and media analysts.
EmbattledMedia remains a widely read book in South Asia for its incisive analysis of the complicated intersections between law, media and governance. A particular focus was the early struggles of Sri Lanka’s media industry bodies in establishing a Right to Information (RTI) regime. The enactment of the RTI Act (2016) and its enthusiastic use by ordinary Sri Lankans thereafter became one of David’s greatest joys.
During his frequent visits to Sri Lanka, Dr. Page fell dangerously ill with dengue fever and was in hospital requiring blood transfusions for several days before he was well enough — with wheelchair assistance — to fly back to London.
But he loved Sri Lanka and always felt at home there. His interest in South Asia was deep and abiding, his books also included ‘Satellites over South Asia: Broadcasting, Culture and the Public Interest’ (co-authored with Crawley, Sage, 2001). The book was accompanied by a documentary film titled ‘Michael Jackson comes to Manokganj,’ directed by the Indian filmmaker Nupur Basu.
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